Hunt for the Ragout Rabbit
by Ame Tanken
Summary: Set in Aincrad when Kirito and Asuna are living together. Kirito's hunt for another Ragout Rabbit is cut short when another player challenges him. Please note I do not own the series or characters. Also, this is my first ever fan fiction, so if you think it's rubbish that's probably why!


Kirito crept through the forest as quietly as he could. Determined to find another 'ragout rabbit' to bring home to Asuna, he had now spent 3 hours and a half in complete silence, looking for the little S-class monster.

He was on floor 74, where he had caught one last. They were super rare of course, but if he'd found one once... well, why shouldn't he find one again.

Even if it was all 'fake', and even if it might mean his death, Kirito still enjoyed playing SAO a lot of the time. In fact, probably more than he should considering how many people he had seen die because of the VRMMORPG. He sighed. Of course he wanted to clear the game like everyone else, but all around him, more and more he was noticing players settling down and enjoying themselves. And if it wasn't for this 'death game' he would never have met Asuna.

Still, _they_ were far from having settled down, what with the fact that Heathcliff could recall them to the front lines at any moment and there were still 25 floors to clear at this point.

His thoughts were suddenly broken when he saw a rabbit-like creature out of the corner of his eye, hopping about. Without thinking, he span around suddenly, startling it. The rabbit fled.

"Dammit!" exclaimed Kirito chasing after it. Round trees, through undergrowth, over dead branches- never once taking his eyes off it. The rabbit suddenly jumped off a ledge up ahead out of view.

Kirito vaulted the ledge too and- WAM! - landed on a boulder and jumped off. He looked left, right, left. It was gone! Then he looked round and saw a player, holding the ragout rabbit meat, and flat on the ground. There was no boulder in sight.

"OW! Watch you're going you little brat!" the red-haired woman groaned, getting up slowly.

Embarrassed, Kirito gave a nervous laugh. "Ah... Sorry. I was chasing after that Ragout Rabbit..."

"Really, I just caught a _Ragout Rabbit?!" _she asked excitedly looking at the item the monster she just killed had dropped. "I'm RICH!"

"What do you mean? It's mine 'cos i saw it first!"

"Yeah! But I killed it brat!" She replied in a sing-song voice.

"Well... you caught it by accident so..." Kirito trailed off.

The woman glared at him and snorted. "Hmmm... O.K. kid, if you can beat me in a First Strike Duel, you get the item. If not, I get it. YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Kirito smiled, although by rights it was his item, he really wasn't up for a duel right now. "Fine, but on second thoughts I'd rather just give it you..."

"No, I've decided, I'm gonna beat you and earn that rare item! I'm the best with an axe in my whole guild after all!"

Kirito recieved the duel request. He accepted it, and the 60 second countdown began. His opponent, whose player name was '_Solar_' equipped a large, bronze-coloured battle axe and smirked confidently. Kirito equipped his Elucidator, he didn't think duel wielding would be necessary this time.

The countdown was down to 20 seconds left.

"You _are _clear about the rules aren't you" Kirito's opponent teased, "First hit wins _or_ if your HP goes down to half you lose. In this case I'll be halving your HP with one hit anyway so it doesn't really matter. Don't worry about."

Kirito just smiled politely. She was treating him like a child, but she was probably only a couple of years older in real life. Then concentrating, he saw the time was nearly up and went into his battle stance.

3, 2, 1 and-

The instant the time was up Solar sprang forward with incredible speed and brought the axe down, smashing into the space Kirito had been an instant before. Surprised at having only just managed to dodge, he countered, and swung Elucidator up at his challenger. She blocked as she landed.

They glared at each other for a while before Solar suddenly froze and looked directly behind kirito in terror. "LOOK OUT!' she screamed.

Kirito swung around startled and saw...

nothing.

Then he felt the axe slash him and noticed his HP dropping by about 30%. A cheap trick!

He turned around to see Solar laughing uncontrollably. She had won.

"Oh that was hilarious! Hahahahahahah! Oh you should have seen your face. Hahaaaa! I'm Solar by the way. And you are- ?"

"Kirito. I _guess_ I should be pleased to meet you-" He stopped. Behind Solar, a huge non-human sillouhette was appearing. "LOOK OUT!"

This time it was _not_ a trick.

It was a huge 'Drunken Ape', but not like the ones he'd battled on floor 35. The monster was about 40 feet tall and was armed with a colossal spiked steel mace. Great big scars covered its gorilla-like face and its eyes glowed red.

Solar screamed when she saw it and could do nothing when it's giant fist pummeled her into the ground with one swift motion.

"Solar!" Kirito yelled. He had beaten a fair few boss monsters in the game and was not about to let some stupid overgrown monkey beat him. Equipping his other sword: 'Dark Repulser', he leapt into the air and slashed at the monster at high speed.

Or we would have been if he wasnt being held aloft by his cloak, dangling, the monster holding it by his enormous thumb and finger. Kirito squirmed and tried to attack, but he couldn't reach.

"HEY, PUT HIM DOWN YOU BASTARD!" Solar screamed having climbed out of the small crater made by the drunken ape's punch, "OR I'LL-"

The giant monkey sent her flying into the forest with it's mace before she could finish, then turned back to Kirito. Suddenly it flicked him up into the air and caught him in it's colossal hand. It started to squeeze.

"AArrRGGghhh!" Desperately, Kirito tried to force the ape to let go, but it was no good. He was loosing strength quickly. After everything he'd gone through in Aincrad, all the battles, he just couldn't believe he could die like this. But the monster kept on crushing him, only enraged... He tried to remember the last thing he'd said to Asuna, something stupid no doubt, probably about those damn rabbits...

The last time he had been close to death, Asuna had saved him at the last minute, but he didn't suppose that was going to happen again.

Kirito's HP went into the danger zone.

And then the apes eyes went wide as Asuna plunged her sword into the top of its skull. 'The Flash' had seemingly appeared from no-where.

"Yaahhhh!" Asuna cried as she stabbed again with her sword, this time at the monkey's neck.

The creature immediately let go of Kirito, letting him tumble to the floor.

"Asuna! What are you doing here!"

"Me? I cam to find you, since you taking so long!" she called out, jumping from the creature's shoulder and slashing at its feet. It howled once, and tripped, thankfully falling backwards...

The monster vanished, defeated.

"You saved me, again?!" Kirito, once again, was amazed at Asuna's strength, speed, and beauty.

She walked over to where he was sitting and knelt down.

Asuna smiled sweetly as she said with a certain amount of passive aggression: "_But Kirito-kun_, your **_not _**safe yet. 'Cos you're two hours late _and you haven't even found any food_."

"What? But... I did! It was right here!" Kirito answered panicking, searching the ground. "But... I..."

"Now stop lying Kirito-kun. There's. Nothing. Here!"

"But... But..."

Kirito gave up argueing, his wife was so strong-willed sometimes!

Such a waste that after all that time, effort, and fighting... the Ragout Rabbit Meat had been squashed and shattered into a hundred pieces when Kirito fell on it...

* * *

**So that's the end. My first ever fanfic so there's still probably a lot to improve. Just a silly story that I didn't really think too much about, I'll probably post more serious stuff at some point...**

**There _may _be details in this that don't match up with the actual series, but I wasn't entirely sure on how _everything _in the game worked. Never mind.**

**Sword Art Online rules!**


End file.
